The LWBA program hopes to generate maps of relative
abundance of birds in the state during late winter. To do this, we borrow the
familiar, standard CBC methodology in terms of party-hours and party-miles to
generate indices of relative abundance, and apply these to 7.5 quad grid cells,
which are roughly 35% as large as a CBC circle. We think that a minimum of 20
party-hours (total; not necessarily all in same day) is necessary to
characterize a quad. These can be distributed in any way within the 6-week
survey period (over the life-span of the project). In fact, the same areas can
be resampled multiple times as long as the numbers of birds are calibrated by
party-hours and party-miles.

The general idea, at least for the quad compilers,
is to treat the quad survey as a small, square CBC circle and sample
accordingly to produce the standard, familiar "birds/party-hour" data
on relative abundance.

Data-entry and display will all be online, in
partnership with the eBird
program at Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology.

Directions for checking the current list for any
quad ...go through the following
steps:

eBird > Louisiana Winter Bird Atlas (under
"Regional Projects Near You", lower right of screen) > View and
Explore Data > Bar Charts > Atlas Quadrangles in this State ... Continue
> pick quad name from the roster that appears ... Continue. This will
generate a seasonal checklist that will also include Summer Bird Atlas data as
well. If you want to exclude summer-only species, then do "Change
Date" and restrict to "Winter."

Goals

1. Publish an atlas of winter bird distribution for
Louisiana using the same 7.5 quad scale as in the Wiedenfeld & Swan's
Breeding Bird Atlas.

2. Add a level of information not present in Wiedenfeld & Swan or any other
atlas to our knowledge, namely information on relative abundance based on
birds/party hour (or party mile for roadside species). The atlas will reflect
these data with perhaps 5-6 color shades, on a scale such as <1/party-hr,
1/party-hr, 10/ph, 100/ph, and 1000/ph.

3. Have all data displayed online as soon as entered by observers and
subsequently filtered by quad compiler. Allow instantaneous uploading of new
data to web page that displays atlas results.

Methods

1. Overview

This survey method combines the grid approach of an
atlas with the effort-calibrated approach of the CBC. Breeding Bird Atlases
typical provide only presence/absence data and do not provide information on
relative abundance. Therefore, they cannot be used to assess differences in
relative abundance within a state nor long-term population trends. CBC
methodology, in contrast, permits this by calibration of all field data by
party-hours, a technique familiar to all birders. The problem with using CBC
circles for atlasing is that they are too few and too irregularly distributed
geographically. Furthermore, the CBC period is too early in winter, and may not
adequately reflect "true" winter populations. The CBC time period is
not only short but also conflicts severely with major holidays. Also, CBC
circles are so large (ca. 175 sq. miles) that covering them thoroughly requires
substantially more effort relative to the roughly 62 sq. miles of a 7.5 quad.
Finally, in contrast to atlasing efforts, dates for individual CBCs are set in
advance and are essentially irrevocable once set regardless of bad weather;
they are also restricted to a single 24-hr period. The method proposed here
blends the strengths of both atlas and CBC methods and minimizes their
weaknesses.

2. Specifics

a. Each quad has a compiler responsible for doing
surveys and submitting data. Each compiler is encouraged to recruit qualified
help to survey their quad. Data gathered within the quad by observers other
than the compiler are submitted directly to eBird but are eventually filtered
by the compiler before adding to the official database.

b. A survey consists of a bird count, CBC-style
with respect to keeping track of numbers of individual birds, party-hours,
party-miles, and rough habitat coverage. For mapping in the atlas, a quad needs at least 20
party-hours of surveying, hopefully more, over the 4-year lifespan of the
project. Those hours can be
distributed over any number of days within the official "winter
atlas" period. Thus,
flexibility in survey dates allows avoidance of bad weather, and also permits a
single observer to cover different sections of a quad on different days. An ideal survey might consist of the
compiler organizing 2-4 teams to survey sections of the quad on a single day,
CBC style. As long as party-hour
and party-mile data are recorded, the fundamental unit of the atlas, namely
birds/unit effort, remains intact (daytime only – no owling – see
FAQ). Repeat surveys of the same
spots on different days are also possible, again as long as the data are
calibrated by effort.However, do
not bias a quad’s data by too many counts from a single spot, e.g., your yard
– limit those to say 4-5 representative counts/year. Other than excessive single-point
sampling, surveys can be conducted as often as resources permit.Do not do surveys during bad weather to
minimize "weather effects" on detection rates. Just use birding
common sense, e.g., do not do surveys of woodland landbirds when it’s so windy
that you can’t hear or see them … in other words, keep in mind that the goal is
to make the critical unit for comparing relative abundance, namely
birds/party-hr, as representative as possible and void biasing this downward by
surveying in bad weather.Also,
use birding common sense again to get out as early in the day as possible, when
detection rates peak.

Quads that don’t reach the 20-phr threshold might
not be mapped individually, but the data will be used, even if only a single
1-hour sample, for broader regional comparisons and inter-annual comparisons.No data are discarded.We are seeking funds to hire
“mercenaries” to boost phrs in quads that haven’t made it to the 20 phr
threshold.We also may be able to
map quads that have reached only 10 party-hours in analyses of common, widely
distributed species.

c. The minimum unit for data-entry in terms of time
period would be 1 hour. This minimizes the biases of brief sample periods. Once
that threshold is reached, all additional time counts toward the total, even if
not continuous with the first hour. As with CBC methods, avoid counting same
birds more than once in same day.

See FAQ for
additional details (and let Remsen know what else should be addressed at the
FAQ)

Step 2: either (a) Select from "My Locations" to get to a quad for
which you've previously entered a list, or (b) "Find it on a Map".

Step 3: click on the red balloon closest to your quad.

Step 4: click on your quad's name.

or

at Step 2, go to "Find it by Quad, City ...
" and check the box at the bottom for list of quads. This may be easier
than 2b above, but eBird would prefer you use 2b.

BE SURE TO SPECIFY AN INDIVIDUAL QUAD FOR
YOUR DATA ... OTHERWISE THEY DO NOT GO INTO THE LWBA DATA-BASE.

Then, enter your bird data by following the
instructions. Put your locality
details in the Comments box for reference. If you have problems, let me or Richard know; this is a novel
program for eBird, so we're still working out the problems. If you don't have computer access, just
send your survey data to us, and we will enter it for you.

Official "Winter" period

Start: 10
January. This avoids the
traditional CBC period and also coincides with the empirical observation that
many "half hardy" species seem to disappear after early January. To some degree, the latter is an
artifact of CBC period coverage, but not entirely.

End: 20
February. With Purple Martins
arriving in mid January, some waterfowl beginning to leave in late January, and
some residents nesting in January, there is no such thing as a
"stable" winter period for the entire avifauna. Late February leaf-out for many trees in
southern Louisiana certainly sets a late limit. An "end" date of 20 Feb. extends the period as long
as possible without major departure of most winter residents. This may not apply to waterfowl, but
waterfowl are not among the species for which this sort of survey is best
suited.

Output

The atlas will consist of maps of the state for
each species with each quad coded for relative abundance of that species in
perhaps 4-6 shades of the same color. The relative abundance scale can vary among species, as can
the unit of analysis (e.g., birds/party-hr on foot, birds/party-hr by car,
etc.). [Details not important until we have a better feeling for the data.]

For fun, we will maintain tallies of total number
of species, total number of party-hours, and so on, divided by region (Coastal
Zone, Southern Interior, Northern Interior; see LA subdivisions
for boundaries). See:

o All submitted data will be filtered eventually
through the Quad Compiler (details for data submission and uploading to be
worked out with eBird and CLO).

o The Quad Compiler will try to make sure that at
least 20 party-hours are invested in the quad between 10 Jan. and 20 Feb. over
the lifespan of the project (not just a single year) and will make sure the
data are entered into the eBird portal.Theoretically, you could accumulate the 20 hours on 20 separate 1-hr
time blocks.

o Quad Compilers should consider organizing one or
more all-out 1-day surveys within a quad, carving it up into territories. In
other words, make it like a Christmas Count (but one with the flexibility to
avoid bad weather and holidays).[No one has done this yet, so this isn’t a responsibility, just a
suggestion.]

Once you've located a quad at the latter, you can
download a good map as a tiff file and then print that out (or save as pdf file
and print that out -- resolution not as good but file size not huge, unlike
tiff files).